Kismet Short Stories and Drabbles
by hiddenshadowwolf
Summary: Set in the same AU as Kismet, these are some drabbles and short pieces that happened behind the scenes and didn't make it into the main story. Could be inspired by random things but mostly these are cut scenes or mini fics just because. Hope you enjoy!
1. New Outfits

**This story was inspired by the new 2016 trailer that came out and I recognize that I had been using the old 2014 outfits in the main story up to this point. Also... Holy Crap. Therefore: short story about the introduction of these outfits to Aaliyah. Tada!**

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"Are you ready?"

"Come on Leo, I'm dying over here! You've been so dang secretive about this new getup I'm gonna start getting grey hair if you don't just show me already!"

"Ok, ok, here it goes." He stepped around the corner and instantly Aaliyah's eyes widened. Her face first drained of color and then flushed a deep scarlet. There was the sound of a loud clap that instantly had the other brothers peeking around the corner. It wasn't the sound of a slap, evidently, but now Aaliyah's face was covered with her hands and she was squeaking almost incoherently.

"For Fuck's Sake Leonardo! You can't just… Holy crap! You gotta warn a girl if you're gonna suddenly decide to walk around half naked! Good night, you're gonna give me a nose bleed. There's gonna be blood all over this floor and I won't even be able to clean it up because literally all of the blood in my body has gone to my face and then it's going to be on the floor and I'll be dead. You could kill a girl with that outfit. Lack thereof, more like."

Leo chuckled self-consciously and rubbed the back of his neck as she stole another peek and had to turn away. "Damn. I don't know how you found pants that fit you the way they do but damn. Seriously. Half naked, goddamn pants that should be illegal, are you trying to kill me? I'm pretty sure you're trying to kill me. Are you going to be wearing this regularly? I don't think I could handle seeing those pants every day."

"This is the new look for now, yeah. The old gear was getting worn out so…"

"Dammit Leo, you're trying to kill me off."

He laughed again and shifted around on his feet, turning to look at his brothers with an incredulous expression. Donnie did not look pleased but the other two were giving him the thumbs-up signal. "I really wasn't going for that, I promise. So… You think it looks alright?"

Still impossibly red she did her best to turn and face him without oogling too noticeably. Aaliyah cleared her throat and steepled her hands, working to find words but having none come to mind immediately. "It looks a lot cleaner than before. There's less busyness to it and it looks a lot more functional in battle. It looks… Damn. Uh… It's a good look. It's a very good look. More revealing than what I expected, but hopefully I'll get used to seeing so much skin before I die of blood loss from all the damn nosebleeds I'll be having on a regular basis."

Leo grinned and started to speak but Mikey jumped around the corner and posed dramatically. "MY TURN! My turn baby girl ya gotta tell me what you think of my new bling!"

Leo's expression soured instantly and he shoved Mikey roughly. "Hey!"

"Come on, man, you had your turn!" Mikey whined, shoving back. Aaliyah stepped in, the color of her face returning to normal.

"Oh Mikey look at you! Look at this chain! Where did you even find something like this? What did you do with your shells? I loved those shells."

Michelangelo preened under her attention and flexed, showing off his new alterations with pride. "Yeah girl! I totally snagged this after we roughed up some Purple Dragon thuggies who were messin' up this jewelry store guy and we kinda scared him a bit so he chucked it at me and was all 'here take it brah! Just don't hurt me!'"

"Oh goodness!" Aaliyah responded with genuine concern, but Michelangelo waved it away casually.

"Nah, I totally took it back like a week later and tried to give it back but he was cool. He was like, 'Bro, you totally saved me back there and it was the most epic thing. I want you to have it, brah, cause you're totally the coolest.'"

Raphael snorted and strolled around the corner with a shake of his head and shoved Mikey out of the way. "It wasn't like that ding-dong. I was there. Don't listen to this guy, he's full of crap."

"Hey!"

But he paid Mikey no attention. Puffing up a bit and rolling his shoulders Raphael was doing his best to project that he didn't care about showing off his new look but the hesitant dart of his eyes over to Aaliyah to try to gauge her reaction was fairly easy to spot. Incredibly impressed at just How Much had gone into the new look showed a great deal about the thought he'd invested into his appearance.

"GoodNess! Look at you! You look like a tank! These shoulder guards and the shin guards definitely get a thumbs up. I like anything that keeps you safe and protected. And look at this! Look at this!" She oohed over the aviator bomber-type parachute straps that crossed over his front. "This is some seriously heavy duty stuff! Look at how nice this all looks! All the way down to this awesome belt! You need to show me how to tie a knot like this. It's so pretty."

He huffed and rolled his shoulder, cracking a smile and shaking his head. "It ain't pretty but whatever. 'S durable, that's what matters. This stuff's gonna hafts keep up with us."

Aaliyah nodded and reached up to touch the Wilkie talkie attached to the strap on Raphael's left. "Never though I'd see the day Donnie finally got You hooked up to electronics. Better watch out or he's gonna start implanting stuff."

"Hey!" Donnie called out as he rounded the corner looking rather offended. She laughed and casually looked over her shoulder to wink at him, immediately doing a double take and spun around to face him. Her face bloomed a scarlet red hue, hands slowly rising up to cover her mouth and nose. Completely lost for words she turned sharply on her heel, shielding her eyes, and marched out of the room. The brothers roared with laughter and slapped Donnie's shell, ribbing him and shoving him after her.

Blushing nearly as darkly as Aaliyah he scurried down the hall to find her fanning herself in the kitchen. She spotted him out of the corner of her eye and yelped in surprise, shielding her eyes again. "Dammit Donnie, you can't sneak up on people like that! Goodness!"

"Sorry, sorry." He apologized, shuffling his feet. He looked up hopefully and fiddled with one of his suspender straps, trying to put together the question he had without having it come out uncomfortably. "You, um, don't like it? The outfit?"

There was a few beats of silence before Aaliyah sighed heavily and dropped her hands to reveal the heat in her face had not subsided in the least. She steepled her hands and looked the ensemble over intensely, giving Donatello the odd feeling of being checked out. He could feel the weight of her eyes on him and if it wasn't for the dark blush on her face he probably would have made some excuse to leave. But that tint to her cheeks was because of Him. He'd done that, and it gave him such great pleasure he couldn't have left even if he'd wanted to. It was too cute.

"Donnie, I'm going to ask you one question only." She finally said, her voice squeaking a little bit.

"Uh huh?"

"… Why are you wearing a leather garter?"

He blinked at her in surprise and looked down. Oh, that? "It's, uh, it's for tools, you know?" At least, that had been the intention. Being able to have a spot to hang tools while he was working so that they'd be easily accessible. "Why? Is it a problem?"

He expression dropped a little bit in sarcastic reply as of to say, 'you have no idea' but the expression was quickly replaced with one that was much more schooled. Then with a formal clearing of her throw she did her best to put on her most objective expression and analyze his outfit for him so as not to injure his feelings.

"The shorts look like they fit well while still allowing free range of motion. The color is not quite close enough to your skin tone so as to cause confusion while still maintaining enough green in tone so that they don't draw much attention to them. The suspenders act a bit like a vertically striped shirt in that they add a bit of visual length to your appearance while not subtracting anything from…" She made a vague swirling gesture at his torso but lost her composure and had to cover her eyes again for a moment.

"Gaaaah, I swear all of you are trying to kill me. All of you. First there was naked Leo, then Raph the Tank, then Blinged-out Mikey, and now you're in suspenders with a garter. Why? Why did the universe do this? Why is it trying to kill me off?"

"Aaliyah, if you want me to I can take it off." Donnie suggested helpfully, trying to figure out what he could wear instead of she didn't want him to wear this. She, on the other hand, choked at his suggestion and clapped her hands over her face.

"For fuck's Sake! Don! No!" She chastised, grumbling under her breath, "I'm having a hard enough time over here!"

Realizing his slip he jumped and held up his hands defensively, waving them erratically in front of himself. "No no no! Not… Not like that! I meant change! Not… Not just…" He cursed and

rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. Michelangelo, who had been listening in the hallway, busted a gut and actually lay down on the floor so he could properly roll with laughter. Which, of course, meant the other two turtles had to come investigate. Mikey told them the story with tears streaming down his cheeks and Leonardo joined Raphael and Michelangelo in their uproar over the whole event.

It took several days for Aaliyah so stop squealing in surprise every time Leonardo or Donnie especially snuck up on her but eventually she mustered up enough courage to snap one of his suspenders. Donnie, on the other hand, had a much harder time getting used to the half-lidded way her eyes would roam over him when she thought he wasn't paying attention or the way she looked up at him through her eyelashes as the strap she'd just snapped vibrated against his plastron. The pants were much more restrictive for his tail and it started to become an issue when all he had to do was think about possibly sneaking up behind her and his shell would begin to tighten uncomfortably.

But, as with all things, they eventually settled down and Aaliyah stopped reacting to the suspenders or the way the pants tugged occasionally near the zipper.

And Donatello began to wonder if there was some way he could accumulate more clothes that he could rotate through so as to keep the magic of being undressed with her eyes from never fading away.


	2. Procrastination

_**I considered using this as the opening to Chapter 17 but decided against it since so much of the story has been already focused around why there's so much wishy-washiness from Aaliyah and where Donatello is as far as his feelings are concerned. It just felt redundant. So this got scrapped in favor of a more action-y type start to Chapter 17 since we're getting so close to the Final Confrontation with Shredder. Nothing really new here but it does give a little bit more depth to what happens in Chapters 17 and 18. Consider this a 'deleted scene.' Enjoy!**_

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"You really ought'a take Don with you. He's real smart and he can totally take Bishop if things go south." Raphael prodded as he adjusted Aaliyah's fingers. She stood there patiently in the ready position, poised to attack the punching bag as soon as her wrapped hands were correctly positioned.

"Leo's a better choice for this." She responded casually even as her jaw flexed testily. Plans had been made, family discussions had been had, and still for two days it seemed that Michelangelo (and now Raphael) were bound and determined to make something happen even if it meant shoving the two of them into some kind of confined space and locking them in there. Quite frankly, Aaliyah was at the end of her rope by now and running thin on patience with it all. She had one last nerve and Raphael was going to do what it took to get on it.

"Like shell he is. You just wanna take Leo cause you're avoiding Don for some stupid reason." Raphael shot back grumpily. Temper already flaring over the injustice of this whole situation and how much he hated seeing Don slinking around like a puppy waiting for the other boot to fall on his head, he was itching for a fight with the frustratingly even-tempered woman. And true to form she simply drew in a deep breath and flexed her jaw again as her only show of irritation.

"Raphael, I've already told you my reasons for the way I'm proceeding with Donatello. I don't like it any more than anyone else but it's for your safety. You know that."

"Yeah, but Don don't and that's wrong." He growled, finally done fussing with her hands and nodded for her to go on. She reminded him so much of Leonardo, always so controlled. Always measured. Her form was very, very basic but even now her punches were even and delivered calmly. Too calmly. Even Leo snapped eventually but it seemed unfortunately near impossible to get Aaliyah to that point. "Are you ever gonna tell him?"

She didn't answer immediately, taking a few punches to gather her thoughts and try to figure out a way to word them so Raphael would understand. "Raph, if you were in Donatello's position... if things were different. If April was still around and she told you that she really liked you but it was too dangerous for you two to be together, would you listen? Or would you try to find a way around it? Would you train harder and work to prove to her that it wasn't too dangerous instead of listening to her?"

"'S better'n dyin' alone. And a shell of a lot better than not knowin'." He snorted back defiantly. She sighed and switched her footing so that her left side was forward instead of right, hoping that somehow the change would somehow change the subject. "Ya can't avoid Don forever, ya know. And he doesn't deserve ta be ignored forever either."

"I don't intend to." She replied with a sing-song lilt that indicated she was growing further agitated with the conversation. "I just need to maintain the status quo until Shredder is defeated."

"And what if Don doesn't make it? Huh? What if he dies?" Raphael pushed, his voice raising in tone.

"Raphael, we're done talking about this." Aaliyah clipped, flashing him a dangerous look. Her punches paused, muscles coiled like a wound up spring.

"No. You're done pretending like you can just put this off for forever. We ain't got forever. Shell, we ain't even got a tomorrow most days! And you're going around making Donnie feel like shit just cause you don't wanna pull your head outta your ass!" Raphael snarled and Aaliyah's face screwed up in fury. They stared each other down for a few noisy huffs, neither of them budging or batting an eyelash.

"What would you have me do, Raphael? Sit Donnie down? Tell him how I feel? Tell him that I know he wants to have a relationship but he hasn't asked yet out of fear? Tell him that I have a crush on him so he doesn't need to be scared anymore? Oh but, sorry, by the way, now that you know that I feel the same way we can't actually get together. It's too dangerous for you, you can't handle it just yet. We need to wait until after the big battle which, according to the future that I personally witnessed, you all died during but hopefully if I've done my job right then maybe you all won't end up dead. We can try a relationship then." Her tone was quiet and quivered with suppressed emotion that started to creep its way out of the corners of her eyes.

"Do you really think that's going to fly? Do you really think for one minute that Donnie will nod his head and say 'oh I totally get it, I definitely need to do the mature thing and sit on this knowledge until it's a better time for us to be thinking about anything other than preparing to face our doom. I definitely can understand that because I play such a vital role in this team I definitely need to put off any kind of self-indulgent distractions like girls. Thanks for telling me that I can't have this right now even though I could if I really wanted to.' Do you really think for ten seconds that Donnie is going to see it that way? You look me in the eyes, Raphael, and you tell me with 100% confidence that if I tell Donnie how I feel that he's going to still buckle down and focus. If you can do that then I will march my butt right up to the warehouse garage this minute and I will have that conversation with him."

Raphael's eyes narrowed and his pupils bounced between hers as he mulled over her argument. Finally breaking her fiery gaze with a defeated sigh he dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck. "What if you an' Master Splinter both sat down with him? I mean... Sensei... he could talk some sense into him right?"

She snorted derisively and shook her head with a grim smirk. "I've already thought it through, Raph. If there's one thing I've learned it's that all good things come to those who wait. And I love you guys too much to be selfish now. I know it's a jerk move, I know I'm not being 100% fair to Donnie but it's the best thing for me to do right now. I just honestly don't think he'd understand. He'd try to find a way around it, try to pull more all-nighters to get things done faster, anything to find a loophole. Then he'd start making spreadsheets and flowcharts instead of working and then we're right back to the initial problem we had in the first place. There's no easy answer, and I'm so sorry that Donnie is the one who ends up on the short end of the staff but I don't know what else to do to keep him and keep you all from dying. I can't let you die because of something silly like this. I'm trying to keep you all alive."

"Yeah?" Raphael asked irritably, maddeningly frustrated over the simple and sound logic that was going to keep his brother miserable even if it was for a good reason. "An' what happens if he's dyin' over it already?"

Aaliyah just rolled her eyes and got back to punching methodically. "Oh stop being dramatic. Donnie's fine. 2012 April strung Donnie along for way over a year. It's barely the end of summer. He's fine."

"Hey!" Raphael barked, putting a hand on the punching bag with a snarl. "I don't give a crap about what other Don's have been through, I care about what You are puttin' him through now!"

Instantly Aaliyah was livid once more and the sandbag sounded a surprisingly loud 'whack' at the explosion of her temper. "Raphael Hamato! We just went over this! It's not happening! Stop! Trying! I won't be selfish again!" Every several words was punctuated by the sound of her angry thrashing of the inanimate practice object which now included some sloppier kicks and jabs as the took all of her bottled anger and frustration out in one go. "Do you know what happened the last time I did something stupid like this? I ended up with a kid and a husband that told me he loved me every day even though he wouldn't lift a damn finger unless I begged! I married him because he told me that he wanted to be responsible for the life we created and I was too stupid to realize that I was better off alone! I lived in an abusive relationship that I kept up every day even though it was Hell! And I did that for HER! For her happiness, for her well being, so that she'd at least have a daddy even if he was a lazy ass! Do you even realize what I would do for him if I could? Did it ever cross your mind that I want nothing more than to work every day of my life to make sure that Donnie's happy? What ends of the earth I'd go to for any of you? And now your lives are on the line! Why doesn't anybody realize that!? Why can't any of you see that your blood is on my hands if you die!? I will Not! Let! You! Die!"

Anger spent, skin bruised, she panted and leaned heavily on the bag. Raphael could only stare down at her and let the words of her outburst sink in. He had nothing to say, nothing to offer. He wanted to say that he hadn't known, but the truth was that he had. She'd told them all about her life before. But hearing it laid out in this context had him silenced. It took a few moments for Aaliyah to catch her breath but when she had she straightened up and tucked a few stray hairs behind her ear. Catching Raphael's gaze with one of hardened resolve and some amount of disappointment in him. "I don't care if you think I'm being unfair to Donnie. I'll lie to him and tell him that I don't have feelings for him if I have to. I'd rather have him, have all of you, alive and hating me than dead with my name on his lips. Drag me through the mud if you have to, throw me under every bus in New York. It's nothing I haven't been through before. But don't you dare ever think that I do what I do because I don't care. Unlike some people I just don't have the luxury of being able to forget the big picture. I'm sorry that you don't like it, but to be honest I quite frankly don't care if you don't like it. I love this family and if you don't approve of me trying to save it then you can suck it. I'm going to go get showered and ready to meet Bishop now. And when I come out I want you to understand that I'm not going to discuss this with you anymore."

"Fine." Raphael spat out hotly, marching over quickly and scooping up Aaliyah before she could turn away to walk out of the dojo. "You wanna be like that, fine. But you ain't gonna stand there all high and mighty without seein' this."

She just propped her chin up on her hand and sighed, having learned by now that it was useless to fight once in the potato-sack position atop any of the boy's shoulders. He marched her into Donatello's work space andet her down, preemptively covering her mouth as he dragged her over to Donnie's hunched-over position at his desk. He was snoring lightly, whistling just a little at each exhale, slumped atop a seemingly disorganized mass of papers atop his desk. Anyone who knew Donnie at all knew better, though. And Raphael was familiar enough with Donnie's methodical chaos that all he had to do was lean over his lanky brother and pluck one of the top papers out from under Donnie's arm. He gestured silently to the paper and then to Donnie's desk before holding it out for Aaliyah to inspect.

She took it gingerly and looked it over, hand slowly raising to cover her mouth. It was obviously not the first page, but the contents of the list were easy enough to distinguish that even Casey Jones could have figured out what Donatello had been up to. Each item on the list was a different chic flic or other well known romance movie, and as sub-bullets there were carefully made scientific observations about the progression of the relationships depicted. 'Light smacking to arms or torso is not a negative reaction,' 'females focus heavily on nonverbal communication,' 'females USE nonverbal communication heavily,' 'unfortunate circumstances seems to have no ill effect on relationships, poor reactions o.t.o.h. have a high correlation to premature terminations of relationships,' and many others. On the top right hand corner of the page there was a small number 3, and the list on the bottom of the page indicated that this was not the last page of this list either.

Eyes wet with realization that she was already too late, she looked up at Raphael. They stared each other down for a moment until Aaliyah broke and dropped her gaze to the floor in shame. His job done, Raphael left the room. He harrumphed quietly but pointedly as he passed by her, the single sound heavy with so much weight and so many things that no longer needed to be said. And then Aaliyah was left alone with the sleeping mutant.

She tucked the paper under his arm where Raphael had snatched it, draped a blanket carefully over his shell, and contemplated what to say. What could she say? Was it possible that she could explain her position in a way that he would understand? Would he be angry? Probably not, but the possibility of it had Aaliyah wondering if there was any way to sneak past Raphael without incurring his almighty wrath. Procrastination was always an appealing alternative.

And luckily for her, Leonardo just then came to find her and haul her off to go over their infiltration plan one more time before dinner. Guilt squeezed at her heart but as she turned away from the sleeping turtle she tried to comfort herself in the thought that maybe it was for the best, maybe it still would be the best thing to avoid such a confrontational topic until the Shredder was a little bit more dead.


	3. Second Opinion

**This is just a very small portion of an earlier chapter that got scrapped for length but I kindof liked it so here it is. I almost changed the whole point of view for that chapter just for this segment because I think seeing this from Donnie's POV would have been hilarious. You just know that poor guy was about to pass out the whole time. Well, I mean, you WILL know once you read the short story. There's not a lot of context since it just got lifted out of the middle of the chapter but it still works. It just ends a bit abruptly. Sorry about that. Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

It was stupid, really, and I would have been Far more comfortable doing what I was about to do with Michelangelo than with Donnie but the poor guy did deserve a break.

I tested for smoothness with my own hands nervously and upon finding my legs baby smooth groaned at just how idiotic I felt but marched to my inevitable embarrassment anyways. He wasn't difficult to find, holed up in the garage like usual, making some modifications to Leo's shell cell. The flock of butterflies in my stomach nearly convinced me to sneak back out the way I came but Leo's commentary on my behavior reverberated loudly in my head and acted like a firm hand on my back to push me forward.

"Hey Dee. Got a minute?" Good, that sounded one hell of a lot more casual than I felt. He spun around, startled, and nearly tripped over himself in his hurry to head my direction.

"A-Aaliyah! Hey! Hi, uh, I wasn't expecting to see you here! What's up? Do you need something?"

Ok. Ok. I can do this. "Yeah, it's, uh, it's nothing big but I could use a second opinion on something."

His eyes lit up but he did his best to be as nonchalant as I was trying to be. "Yeah, sure, what's up?"

Gaaaaaaaah why did my stomach feel like it was turning inside out? "It's cool if you don't want to, like I said, it's dumb. But I want to make sure that I go out as cool as a cucumber and confident as possible. And one of the things that I do to give mys- ok you know what, never mind. I'm just realizing how exactly idiotic this sounds coming out of my mouth. Never mind." Chicken. Such a chicken. But I verbally back pedaled out of there as calmly as I could before I ended up hurting myself. There was no way in hell I could have ever actually thought this was a good idea.

Before I could physically turn tail, however, Donnie was right there with his damn golden eyes all concerned and worried over me. "Aaliyah, nothing you could ever say would be so idiotic that I'd ever berate you or make fun of you for it. We all have our own ways of getting ready for things, you don't have to be embarrassed about anything. Is it medically related?"

"N-no. No, it's not a medical question. It's just dumb." I muttered. Ok. Time to grow a spine. What's the worst that could happen? He says no and doesn't speak to me ever again because he thinks legs are gross? … Ok that didn't help at all. He assured me again that I could tell him anything, so very sweetly that there was no way I could deny him, and since the blush on my face was likely going to be permanent anyways I might as well get it over with now.

"It's silly, but being perfectly shaved really boosts my confidence for that day. I usually miss a spot or two, so I came for a second opinion… If you're ok with that." It all came tumbling out in a rush under the pressure of those eyes. If this was Mikey I would have just shouted for him to come feel my legs and then stuck them out one at a time under his nose with my toes pointed. We'd done that plenty of times so it wasn't weird or awkward, there was very little that was truly weird or awkward with Michelangelo, but this was Don. I really was trying to Not kill him accidentally, though by the series of emotions that flashed across his face even just asking might very well do him in. Confusion, shock, embarrassment, excitement, discomfort, disbelief, all in rapid succession.

"Um… Yeah. Sure. I could, if you need a second opinion, I wouldn't be… I mean, only of you're asking what I think you're asking, I certainly would never dream of assuming… But if it will help, and if you need, I wouldn't be opposed to… Uh… Assisting." He fumbled with his words adorably which made me giggle at him. He wiped his hands on the rag that was thrown over his shoulder and then knelt down reverently. The first leg was presented and he took the ankle with one shaky hand, the other making long, even passes from the ankle up to the knee and back down again. He did this several times until he paused in one spot on my calf and his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Uh, here. I think. It's not a large area, but this is the only spot that I can find."

A quick turn of my leg in his hands and a swipe of the razor over my skin. I checked for smoothness with pursed lips, swiped once more, did a check, and then offered my calf to Don once more. He smoothed his hand over the area in careful circles and nodded his agreement. "I think that's got it."

"Perfect. One more and then you're free." I stated with a grin, this time sticking out my other leg a bit more confidently and pointed my toes. He didn't have anything to say in reply but I was pretty sure he paled just a little bit. He was just as reverent as before, like he was getting the opportunity to inspect the very most advanced piece of alien technology in the known universe, and much to my enjoyment he found nothing out of order this time.

"N-nope. Perfectly, flawlessly smooth." He pronounced a bit breathlessly, letting my leg slide through his calloused fingers as I pulled it out of his grip. My skin tingled everywhere his hands had been and I was pretty sure I reeked of pheromones but maybe if I could beat it out of there then I at least wouldn't have to be around when his nose finally caught on.

"Thanks Dee! You're the best!" I gave the top of his head a small kiss and skittered away to finish getting ready before anything started to get unbearably awkward.


	4. Failed Donnie and Aaliyah smut

**Again, sorry, but as hard as i was trying to force the smut to happen it just wasn't happening. You'd think after 109,000 words I'd be able to get SOMETHING steamy in there. But alas the characters are not thrilled about this "sudden" change and therefore the relationship continues to develop at a snail's pace**

* * *

Simply having everyone home and alive was plenty of reason to celebrate, and Casey Jones was more than eager to come over with pizza and a couple of medical supplies so long as he was repaid in stories from the event. Aaliyah wanted to be with the family and so asked Donatello to carry her out of the lab… Right up until she found out that he'd had his humerus broken in his furious rage against The Shredder. Then it was Michelangelo's job to carry her around as needed. His shell was sporting some new, rather severe, cracks but his limbs were fine. She stayed awake long enough to be deposited into Donnie's lap and drink some water but before she could even hear word one of the story she was out again. Not that Donatello minded.

Michelangelo was the designated storyteller, recounting all of the moments everyone shined and everyone slipped up and everything in between.

"And then Brooooooo you should have seen it! Aaliyah totally busted outta nowhere and saved Leo's ass! It was probably the third hottest thing I'd seen in my life. She was all like rrrr-at-at-at-at and just mowed down six of 'em! She got Leo a little, though, and she freaked the shell out! Bahahaha! All like, threw the machine gun over her head and didn't even see it clobber a guy behind her. 'Leo, Leo, Leo! I'm Soooooo sorry! Are you ok!? I'm so sorry, I promise I'll fix it!' Hahaha! Lucky I was there 'cause these three merks were squaring up to take her down but I totally swooped in to save the day."

Normally Donatello would have felt obligated to point out the inaccuracies in the story as it was being told. But with Aaliyah sleeping on his chest… He really didn't have much interest in anything that could possibly wake her and disturb the quiet moment they were having. So he let the inaccuracies slide and buried his nose into her hair to breathe deeply of her feminine scent still mingled a little bit with the iron-rich smell of blood and the smoky overtones of gunpowder.

For nearly a week almost all interactions with her were carried out while she was unconscious. She would wake for a few minutes, just long enough to say a few words and take a few sips of water and use the restroom, and then she'd be out for the next five to seven hours. The cot was moved from the lab to the sitting area where the boys were congregating anyways to sleep in a pile together. Even Sensei was moved to the main area so that everyone could keep an eye on him.

Usually Donatello only slept when he had to, leading him to sleep deeply and dreamlessly. But with Aaliyah within arm's reach he found himself stirring even at the slightest indication of movement.

"….mm."

Donatello's eyes were open and he untangled himself from Raphael's arm. " 'liyah? You awake?"

"Mhm."

"Do you need anything?"

"M-m."

"Are you sure?" He slid over next to her cot and took her hand carefully. "We probably ought to have you drink some water."

She thought about it for a second, Donatello worrying that she might have fallen asleep again already. "Aaliyah?"

"'M here. If I have some water can I come cuddle in the pile?"

He wanted to say yes but the doctor in him just couldn't quite agree to that so early in the healing process. "I-I don't want you to get hurt or aggravate your injuries. They're still raw and healing…"

There was the quiet sound of her nodding, braided hair shuffling against the thick fabric of the cot. "Ok. I understand."

"Sorry."

She giggled a little but cursed lewdly at the pain that caused. "Don't be. I know you're just looking out for me."

"I am." He squeezed her hand and she squeezed it back, tugging it up to her lips so she could kiss his bandaged knuckles. His heart flipped over in his chest, mind blanking at the immediate question of whether or not he should (or could) reciprocate the action. But before he could even come to a decision her breathing deepened and the light sound of snoring joined in the chorus of obnoxious snores coming from the pile of brothers to their side. Not daring to wake her up, but not willing to let go of her hand just yet, he scooted a little closer to the cot and lay his head down lightly on her arm. His thumb brushed over her delicate fingers until sleep finally beckoned him back to darkness and he rejoined his brothers til morning.

The second week showed some improvement in the amount of time that both Sensei and Aaliyah were awake, though in Splinter's old age it was already apparent that he was going to take longer than usual to heal. While Aaliyah was able to sit up with some assistance and stay sitting up on her own until exhaustion took over again Master Splinter still needed assistance to even remain sitting up. Even at that, though, improvement meant progress and everyone was in much better spirits by the end of that second week. Except for Leonardo's attitude, however, which only worsened.

Week three brought with it still better news. Aaliyah's body wasn't terribly fast at rebuilding her blood supply but it was efficient at healing and enough scarring had taken place that Donatello was able to remove her stitches. With his and his brother's mutations their ability to heal was incredibly improved over what a normal person would require and so by now even Michelangelo's cracked shell was nearly done scarring. It took some convincing but with his arm fully healed Aaliyah finally relented to Donnie's wide-eyed persistence and allowed him to take over Michelangelo's responsibilities.

Along with this changing of the guard came the need for her first bath since the battle. In her weakened state she hardly had the water in her to even function let alone sweat, and so the occasional wipe-down with a wet cloth had been sufficient until now. Additionally, now that she was able to stay awake for 30-40 minutes at a time there wasn't such a risk of her falling asleep while submerged and risk drowning. In anticipation of the event Donatello had not stopped blushing the entire morning, prompting a severe amount of teasing from the brothers that was nearly impossible to brush off. Aaliyah, on the other hand, had no problem simply rolling her eyes at them.

She'd deteriorated significantly with her mostly-liquid diet and lack of motion, cheeks sunken and pale and body far bonier than her once lithe and muscular figure softened with the gentleness of grace and feminine beauty had been. This made her painfully easy to lift and carry around, even if Donatello's arm hadn't been fully mended. But her eyes were bright and she wasn't quite as deathly pale as she had been the past two weeks so Don did his best to set aside his concerns for her seemingly slow recovery. Two steps forward and one step back was still a net gain of one step forward.

"Alright, here we go." He announced at the arrival to the bathroom, mostly from the nervousness of having nothing else to say. Aaliyah made a noise of agreement and worked to balance herself as Donatello set her down on the counter.

He looked around, somehow already lost, prompting her to giggle at him in sympathy for his predicament. "Don."

"Hm?" His head snapped down to look at her, worry shining plainly in his eyes. She held out her hands to him and he took them, the slightly darker tint that had stained his cheeks all morning roaring back to life intensely.

"Don, it's ok. It's a bath, not sex. I need help to get in, not to get off." She stated bluntly, attacking the source of his embarrassment directly. He peeped and had to cover his face out of total and complete mortification, a move that was too adorable for Aaliyah to not begin cackling at him. An unintelligible string of half-sentences and explanations spilled out of his mouth that he couldn't quite stop, a knee-jerk reaction that she understood but wanted to put to rest.

The only reasonable reaction, then, was to begin undressing.

It took a few moments for him to recognize what she was doing but as soon as he did he choked out a curse and clapped his hands tightly over his eyes. She laughed again but soon joined his cursing as the motion of trying to tug her shirt over her head had her stretching in ways that her innards did not agree with. Embarrassing as it was that this simple thing wasn't one she could do on her own, in a way it worked out to her (painful) benefit. "Don? Little help?"

He didn't move immediately, battling with himself over his unbelievable luck and yet his absolute misfortune. If his brothers could only see him now... they actually probably would not be looking at him. Not with HER to look at. An odd spike of jealous fury at the very thought of that had him checking the doorway (since there was only a curtain that allowed the occupants of the restroom any privacy at all). It was vacant, lucky for his brothers or else there would be blood on the floor to clean up, and that one little fact helped him steele his courage just enough to suck in a deep breath and peer down at Aaliyah.

She had the shirt lifted to her shoulders, his life-long training to be a gentleman immediately averting his eyes again at the expanse of bare skin that accosted him. But her patience with him finally won out and, with his breath held tightly behind thin lips, he knelt down and locked eyes with her. Carefully he pinched the fabric so as to avoid touching even one skin cell and tugged it over her head. That locked gaze never deviated even when her own eyes drifted downward in thought at how this next part would work.

"Alright, one down, one to go. You want to undress or do you want to balance? I'm pretty sure I can't quite manage both."

Another mortified curse slipped out of his lips, this time in Japanese, and he finally broke eye contact to look down at the concrete floor. Would he like to place his hands on her bare skin and hold her while she slipped out of her own pants or would he like to have her drape her naked form over his shoulder while he pulled her only remaining garment from her body? Was running to New Jersey an option? There was definitely no 'correct' answer to this one. It was a trick question. Trick questions weren't fair. It was Definitely not fair to attack him with a trick question like that without giving him at least two weeks notice so he could truly calculate the best answer to give.

"I-I uh... well... it's um... there... if … W-what I mean is... uh..."

Aaliyah understood the conflict behind the babbling, being part of the reason for it to begin with. She certainly hadn't made this easy for him up until now and this being a first for him to begin with it had to be terrifying. The only way any kind of friendship or relationship could work, however, was with open and honest communication and it seemed like he could use a strong dose of it now. Heck, she could probably use just as strong of a dose of it as he needed.

"Don." She took his face in her hands and slid her thumb over his lips, quieting his nervous rambling. His eyes locked stoically with hers, wide and scared stiff.

"Do you remember how I asked you to hold on to that thing you were going to say a little while ago?" He nodded, and Aaliyah continued. "Do you remember why I asked you to hold on before finishing that thought?"

His eyes bounced between hers while he thought back, finally asking with eyebrows lifted uncertainly. "It wasn't a good time?"

She nodded at him and quirked her lips into a crooked smile, stomach twisting nervously. This was it. Time for the moment of truth. "I wanted to make sure that you and your brothers had the best chance possible against the Shredder. That meant that I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to keep you focused. If I was too much of a distraction then I could have gotten you killed. Now that the Shredder is gone it's less dangerous… Well… Less Immediately dangerous… And therefore it's a better time for distractions. So, um, if you're interested… then it's probably safe to tell you now that I Really like you. Now, uh, for right now, I definitely am not going to be offended or upset in any way at all with your hands on me to help me out. I'd… Actually really like that."

Donatello gaped at her, dumbfounded, trying to process what he was hearing. It made sense, logically, but it was still so fantastic to his life-long fear of never being able to find someone that it took a long moment to be able to breathe again. Speaking was still out of the question, though, so something a little bit more concrete was the best way to communicate the tumultuous emotions roiling in his chest.

He took her hands and encouraged her to stand, himself dropping to his knees reverently in front of her. Even with his eyes locked on hers respectfully the view from down below was absolutely spectacular. He nearly forgot why he was down on the floor until she wavered on her feet, still just barely strong enough to stand. Remembering with a start he shuffled foreword on his knees to wrap one arm Very gently around her waist, careful to avoid her injury, and supported her weight. His eyes dropped from her eyes, not quite able to resist sliding over the breathtaking expanse of bare skin before him, finally resting on the waistband of her sweatpants.

Heart in his throat, nearly on the verge of passing out, he touched the soft fabric and paused to lift his eyes up again. She understood his silent question, asking for explicit permission that he couldn't second guess, and she nodded to him. And just to be sure he couldn't misconstrue her meaning she put one hand over his and pressed down on his hand gently. His gulp was loudly audible in the smaller space, breath rattling over her stomach that was so close he could have kissed it. As that thought crossed his mind he found himself leaning in and burying his nose into the perfectly soft skin and peppering it with gentle pecks. The sensation tickled terribly in the most delicious way and the moan that bubbled up in her throat had to be tweaked into a happy hum so as to keep any prying ears from burning.

They were both surprised to find the fabric pooling at her ankles, necessitating that she lean against him in order to step out of it. Then his forearm was behind her knees to lift her from the ground and take her to the tub. In all reality it probably wasn't the best idea for him to be carrying her since the press of her naked body on his plastron was making his legs feel a bit unsteady. But the alternative was to have her walk the treacherous 10 feet on her own and he certainly couldn't have that. Not in the least.

He had already filled the bath preemptively and, after testing it quickly to ensure it was still warm, lowered her into the water. Aaliyah sighed happily and leaned her head back to wet her hair, a movement assisted by Donatello. With her eyes closed he was sorely tempted to ogle the way this position lifted her breasts into quivering peaks that begged to be ravished, but respect and absolute terror kept his eyes trained on the waterline so he could make sure she didn't go fully under and possibly drown.

He pulled her up and fetched her everything she would need, sitting down beside the tub while she washed herself and scrubbed her hair. As long as it took to try to even rinse the shampoo from her hair, however, he had to take over eventually. Carefully his fingers massaged her scalp, pulling the soap and the grime from it in the most soothing of ways. Then while the conditioner set she looked him over with burning eyes and leaned on the edge of the tub with a devious grin.

"Donatello. I'm afraid my strength has failed me since I am so weak and infirm. However I'm afraid I haven't been able to completely wash myself. Might I call upon your position as my physician to assist me? I can assure you that, as my primary healthcare provider, it would be the honorable thing to do as a way of ensuring my comfort and health."

He chuckled weakly a little bit, shaking hands opening and closing nervously while he considered. Did he want to? Yes. Wholeheartedly yes. Would he be in trouble for doing so? From Aaliyah no but if Splinter happened to walk in he'd probably be in the Hashi for a week straight. Did he care? … … nope. … Ok maybe he cared a little but not enough to turn down an offer like the one being offered.

Cautiously, worried that maybe if he moved too quickly she might change her mind


End file.
